Nobu Malibu Chef Ryo Uchimiya, 51, Killed on PCH as New Video Shows SUV Striking Parked Car

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2026 — A chef who helped build one of Malibu’s most famous kitchens is dead after a parked-car crash that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says involved a 16-year-old driver traveling at what appeared to be above the posted speed limit. Ryo Uchimiya, 51, a longtime chef at Nobu Malibu, had arrived early Saturday for work and fallen asleep in the back seat of his car along Pacific Coast Highway when a Range Rover crossed the shoulder’s fog line and slammed into it, authorities said.

Uchimiya was found dead in the back seat of his vehicle, according to the department. Deputies cordoned off the crash scene as the investigation began, with images from the scene showing badly damaged vehicles scattered along the shoulder of PCH — the parked car, the Range Rover, and the other vehicles caught in the chain reaction all left where the force of the impact had thrown them.

The video, described

New footage obtained by KTLA, circulating this morning, shows the crash from a nearby camera: the SUV moving fast along PCH, veering suddenly toward the shoulder, and then the impact — the parked car sent careening into a second vehicle in a chain reaction before everything comes to rest. The video’s audio carries a thunderous bang followed by the screech of tires as the vehicles collide with one another.

We are describing the footage rather than embedding it. The video adds nothing to public understanding beyond confirming what investigators have said about how quickly the sequence unfolded — and the collision’s final seconds are not something that needs to be watched.

The footage was obtained by KTLA, the CW affiliate in Los Angeles, and reported by KTLA’s Chris Wolfe; the New York Post carried the video on its website on Sunday morning, and the clip has since been picked up by outlets across the country. What matters in it is simple: the SUV is moving fast, it veers toward the shoulder, and the parked car has nowhere to go. Everything else in the case will come from investigators, not the camera.

What investigators know so far

Deputies were called to the scene around 7 a.m. Saturday in the area of PCH near Carbon Canyon Road — in the 22600 block of West Pacific Coast Highway, just outside the restaurant where Uchimiya had worked since its early days. The teen was driving eastbound. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. John Addington told reporters the boy appeared to have been speeding; local radio reported he was traveling at least 50 mph when he swerved.

The force of the collision propelled Uchimiya’s parked car into another vehicle, which was then pushed into a third, according to authorities. Uchimiya was pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were reported. The California Highway Patrol issued a SigAlert at 7:51 a.m., shutting down two left lanes of PCH for hours while deputies worked the scene.

The driver stayed at the scene and was cooperating with investigators, and authorities said there were no signs of DUI. As of Sunday morning, no charges had been filed and the investigation remained open — including what caused the Range Rover to leave the travel lane. That part is not yet established, and it would be wrong to treat it as settled.

A kitchen mourns

Uchimiya had worked at the Malibu location the night before, according to restaurant staff, and was expected to be at a catering job in Santa Monica on Saturday — a shift he never made. His death has devastated the staff at Nobu Malibu, the oceanfront Japanese restaurant located just steps from where the crash occurred, known for years of celebrity sightings and its place in Malibu’s restaurant scene. He had been with the restaurant since its early days, spending years helping build its kitchen operation before it became the celebrity-favorite it is today.

The restaurant closed Saturday as employees mourned. Notes and flowers were left outside in his memory, and co-workers described a man who had spent his working life in kitchens — whose last act before falling asleep in his car was showing up early for another day of work.

The deadliest stretch of coastline

The crash lands on the 21-mile Malibu stretch of Pacific Coast Highway, one of California’s most notorious roads, averaging about four crash-related fatalities per year over the past decade. The corridor has been the focus of renewed safety debates since October 2023, when a 24-year-old Malibu man driving a BMW at an estimated 104 mph in a 45-mph zone struck three parked cars — a collision that fatally injured four Alpha Phi sorority sisters from Pepperdine University. That driver, Fraser Bohm, has been charged with murder, and the tragedy prompted proposals for cameras, heavier fines for speeding, and other enforcement measures.

Construction zones proliferated across the corridor after the January 2025 fires destroyed homes and businesses along the coast, bringing reduced speed limits to sections of the highway that are still rebuilding. The reduced limits are meant to protect workers and residents navigating a corridor that never really got quieter.

For California’s restaurant industry, the weekend’s loss is the second in months: in April, Laguna Beach chef and restaurant owner Rainer Schwarz, 59, was killed in a crash in nearby Dana Point. For the Nobu Malibu team, though, this one is personal — a colleague resting in his car before another shift, gone in a chain reaction that took seconds.

What comes next

The investigation is still open, and as of Sunday morning the sheriff’s department had not announced a timeline for its findings. No charges have been filed against the 16-year-old driver. The department has not said what caused the Range Rover to leave the travel lane — whether speed, distraction, or another factor played a role remains under review — and any charging decision would be announced by the sheriff’s department or the district attorney’s office.

The Previously news desk will follow the sheriff’s investigation as findings are released.